Green Child Magazine Spring 2014 | Page 64

Screen Free Week is May 5 - 11! This annual, international initiative was created in 1994 to encourage families, schools, and communities to embrace screen-free entertainment for a week. Hundreds of organizations such as the American Medical Association, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and the YMCA, support the movement. Here are some fun ways to shut off the screens and get outside with your family. These ideas are also good to think about as we all begin planning for summer! 1. Get the imagination going by helping your kids write their own book. 2. Take a ride and ask the kids to paint what they saw. 3. Go for a bike ride, or teach a little one how to! 4. Gather some yummy goodies and take the family on a picnic. 5. Take your kids to read to patients at nursing homes. 6. Visit the local humane society to give love and attention to the animals waiting for new homes. 7. Spend an afternoon sorting through old clothes and toys that can be donated to a shelter. 64 8. Play cards! This old pastime is always good fun. 9. Prepare and plant a garden - even if it’s just in pots! 10. Go on a nature hike & have your kids journal what they see. 11. earn about your local culture and hisL tory. 12. ake a family tree. M 13. ttend a local event, play, or musical perA formance. 14. pend some time at a local bookstore. S 15. isit a new restaurant. V 16. isit a museum. V 17. reate costumes out of old clothes and C craft scraps.